Very sharp and contrasty on my D700, D3S and D800. Crystal clear rendition with no color cast.

Cons:

Almost too light weight for a $700 lens if that's possible.

I was in one of my favorite camera stores buying a new Nikon V1 for my gal when feeling a little under the weather, I started looking at glass. Spending can perk me up. Wink

I'd been casually thinking about this new 28 f/1.8G for a couple of months but was a little worried about the reports of focus shifting and had 28mm covered so many ways. Besides, I rarely need fast glass in wides. Also 28mm is not my sweet spot. I bought it anyway on shear impulse thinking I could return it if it had too much uncorrectable focus shift.

I'm going to have to say I'm quite happy with the initial results on all three FX cameras I own. Not only is there not perceptable focus shift but the lens is sharper and more contrasty than I ever expected. It has as pretty and as clean of an output as any of my top lenses like my 85 f/1.4G or any other Nano coated lens in my kit. Even the bokeh is rather nice if slightly busy. It's creamy enough and better than most wides. That's for sure.

The only possible negative I can think of is that it's almost too light weight. All my FX cameras and one DX model are somewhat heavier all magnesium bodies. All my better glass is heavier metal and glass lenses, so this lens is super light. It feels like my 50 f/1.8G for Heaven's sake. As good as it is, I'll get used to it, I'm sure. I might even learn to love 28mm. Wink

I"m going to use it on the job next week and that's saying something for sure. I usually use a lens for pleasure a long time before committing to it on paid assignments. Highly recommended.

Oh boy, this is a one unique and interesting lens. I bought it used just few months ago. I read many online reviews but you know how misleading that can be. Anyway, I decided to give it a try and I'm so glad I did. I shoot FF so the lens covers an exceptionally cool 28mm which is not too wide yet far from being narrow.

In the past 20 years I tried many different 28mm primes. The best by far is Nikkor 28mm f/1.4 but Nikon is not making them any more. The Zeiss 28mm f/2 comes second but I got to say I was really surprised to see what Nikon 28mm f/1.8G can do. It's almost 3x cheaper than Distagon, produces great results and feels exceptionally good on the camera.

Shooting wide open, I found it to be a bit soft especially corners of the frame. Lack of contrast and sharpness could be fixed in post production but it does require some work. Stop it down at about f/2.8 and you have an amazing kicker capable of producing some stunning images. Overall, I can't be happier ... high quality images for a very reasonable price.

I purchased this lens since I quite like the 40mm focal length for general-purpose photography (ok, 42mm on dx if we want to be pedantic). After over a month of dedicated usage on a d7000, I will say that this can be a tricky lens to use.

It's fairly sharp wide open, though I've found f/2-2.8 to be my minimum for acceptable sharpness. By f/4 and above it's as good as you'd ever wish a wide-angle nikkor prime to be. Nonetheless, as much as I wanted to deny its existence, focus shift does occur around f/4-f/5.6 with a tendency to back focus. You can control it by being mindful of your settings and shooting in aperture-priority, but I definitely had a far lower in-focus keeper rate compared with the 35mm dx or the 50/85 f/1.8gs I also shoot with under the same conditions.

However, while the 35mm dx is generally sharper, the 28mm's flare resistance and bokeh are noticeably superior.

Build quality is plastic. Fine for my purposes, but take care not to bump into anything.

With all this said, I'm keeping the lens, as its results are truly stellar. Just be mindful that there may be a bit of a learning curve with the lens. (As an added note, my copy required a -10 fine tune adjustment.)

May 15, 2014

coffeeshakesOfflineBuy and Sell: On

Registered: Mar 12, 2003Location: United StatesPosts: 616

Review Date: Nov 13, 2013

Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10

Pros:

Sharp at 2.0, great look to images wide open, accurate focus, reasonably small and light, very inexpensive for what it offers.

Cons:

Feels a little cheaply made

Wonderful lens, along with the 85 1.8G and the D800 I can walk into about any situation shooting people and deliver images that the clients love. With ease. At f/2 it delivers the goods. I've only shoot it fairly close up and pretty much wide open, because it looks great that way. I can't say anything about field curvature, infinity performance, corners, etc, as for my uses, a wide fast lens is for reportage style images. It does that in spades.

Nov 13, 2013

c4changeOfflineBuy and Sell: On

Registered: Jul 23, 2005Location: United StatesPosts: 852

Review Date: Mar 4, 2013

Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9

Pros:

Great color rendering, very sharp, close focus, f/1.8.

Cons:

Wished Nikon would've cut the length by an inch and made it more compact.

Mar 4, 2013

asamimasaOfflineImage Upload: Off

Registered: Jun 28, 2010Location: United StatesPosts: 201

Review Date: Jan 23, 2013

Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10

Pros:

Performs better against the sun compared to a 24 1.4G (in my experience)
Superb IQ throughout the frame (slightly compromised due to field curvature)
Nano-coating works its magic

Cons:

Focus shift (not that big of a deal), field curvature, a bit too light (dimensionally and weighted similar to a 18-55 kit lens)